SAN JOSE, Calif. - October 31, 2011 - Phoenix Online Studios, the team behind the episodic King's Quest revival The Silver Lining, and Khaeon Gamestudio, an independent game developer based in the Netherlands, will combine their creative forces in Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller. An episodic detective game, Cognition will have a supernatural storyline developed with help from renowned designer Jane Jensen, and graphic novel style visuals created by comic book artist Roman Molenaar.

Three years ago, FBI agent Erica Reed lost her brother to a serial killer who was never caught. During this desperate investigation, she developed the strange and unpredictable power of post-cognition: by touching an object, she can see its past and the events that happened on, to, or around it. Though undeniably useful in her line of work, this skill makes her uneasy and has caused her problems professionally and personally. Now a new serial killer is on the move—one who leaves behind clues perfectly suited to Agent Reed's unique abilities. Has someone learned her secret? What do they want from her? More importantly: by working this case, will Erica finally uncover enough evidence to bring her brother's killer to justice?

Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller will release as a series of four episodes, a format Phoenix knows well from their work on the ambitious freeware game The Silver Lining (http://www.tsl-game.com). After playing The Silver Lining, Khaeon representatives approached Phoenix to develop Cognition, a project originally conceived by Khaeon's art director Romano Molenaar. The game's design team will work closely with story consultant Jane Jensen on Cognition's plot and investigative gameplay.

"I'm very impressed by Phoenix's work on The Silver Lining -- this is a talented team who has shown incredible dedication to a fan game. Now they're a young company moving into commercial production and I'm happy to be involved. I hope to help them make their first project a success," says Jensen, creator of the acclaimed Gabriel Knight adventure game series. "Cognition is a perfect fit, too, with its supernatural storyline and graphic novel style."

Via Kickstarter, Phoenix and Khaeon hope to raise $25,000 to help fund the game's initial development. Funds raised will be used for software licenses, development resources, and other start-up production costs. Prizes for backers include free downloadable copies of the finished game, signed hard copies, and rare opportunities to appear in the game, name characters, and participate "behind the scenes" in its development.

"Phoenix Online Studios would never have come this far if not for the dedication of our fans. They encouraged us to stick with it, they had our backs when we ran into copyright issues, and they helped us show the world that there's still a huge audience for games like The Silver Lining and Cognition," says CEO Cesar Bittar. "Now we're hoping they'll join us on this next step in our company's adventure, and in return we're looking forward to including the fans in Cognition's development process as much as we can."

Cognition will be developed for PC, with versions for mobile platforms and connected consoles also under consideration. The four episode series is planned to debut in 2012. To learn more about Cognition and view the game's trailer and concept art, visit the official website at http://www.cognitiongame.com.

The new "commercial" game sounds like it has a good story !! Thanks for that info, BrownEyedTigre

Also, I received an email from them today, asking for possible financial support and I would like to donate a little but every time I click the link on their website I get a "can't find this page" error message.

Let's hope, venus but the announcement does say "view the trailer and concept art", as if the two are not the same. I really loathed the same type of graphics in segments of Grey Matter and that alone put me off buying it. Graphics may not be everything but there's a limit to what I'll accept. Being grumpy.

Gil.

Edited by traveler (11/01/1105:51 PM)

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"Best not to think about it. I don't want to fall to bits 'cos of excess existential thought."

Our cutscenes will be along the lines of what's seen in the trailer--sorry Guybrush! I hope that doesn't totally turn you away from the game!

Regular gameplay will 2.5D--2D backgrounds and 3D moving characters, as well as some 3D objects of course. Romano's got a great graphic novel style and I can't wait to see it fully in action in the game! If you visit the kickstarter page, the first image in the project description is an example of an in-game screenshot.

And thank you everyone for your support so far! It's been going great! Oh, and we also released the Cognition main theme in Update #4 of the Kickstarter last week as well. Composed and performed by TSL composer Austin Haynes--you can listen in and download it for free! It's just lovely.

"Huh? I think you meant traveler, who commented on comic book style graphics."

Yup, she probably did. And I haven't changed my mind about the graphics. Sorry, but to me they're ugly and a sloppy way to put together a cut scene, especially for a game that's going to cost money, and I really hope this is not the wave of the future. I don't like to sound harsh but if developers want honest feedback, they just got it. Most likely I'm in the minority anyway.

Gil.

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"Best not to think about it. I don't want to fall to bits 'cos of excess existential thought."

traveler - I'm sorry to hear that. I don't think it's the style we'll use in all our games (we don't in TSL, for example). For this game it feels right--the art in general has a very graphic novel feel, and continuing that with the cutscenes fits. As well, it's somewhat as a tribute/shoutout of sorts to the cutscenes in the first Gabriel Knight game; not only is Jane working with us (squee!!) but Cognition is very similar in atmosphere and genre to the GK games.

But to each their own opinion, and I won't certainly won't begrudge you that.